On-board battery charger died and has to be replaced after 60K miles.

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mrafferty

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
5
My 2012 Nissan Leaf all of a sudden would not charge so we took it in to have it diagnosed and we were told the on-board charger had failed and needs to be replaced for a whopping $2600. I am a Nissan fan, I love my Leaf and I talk to everyone about it, but let's face it, it is difficult to have one as you have to change the way think about using a car and you have to adapt. I am willing and able to do that but the car has to be affordable. My leaf just passed the 60K mark and we take very good car of it. I did nothing to cause a charger failure, it just died. $2600 is equivalent to something more like a transmission rebuild and in my opinion is difficult to understand why it costs so much to replace a charger. The car is unusable without it and I have to get it repaired to use it. One of the main reasons to get a Leaf is to get away from high cost of internal combustion engine repair but here I am in pretty much the same boat. How can I tell other people to consider buying a Leaf when they may have a repair bill like this after only 60K miles. I do not know yet what the warranty will be on the new charger but I know I cannot afford to do this every 60K miles for sure. I am asking all you out there if you too have had to replace the on-board charger or is this a rare occurrence? I was considering a second Leaf but now I do not think I can afford it if there are repair costs like this one.
 
mrafferty said:
My 2012 Nissan Leaf all of a sudden would not charge so we took it in to have it diagnosed and we were told the on-board charger had failed...

The car is unusable without it and I have to get it repaired to use it...
No DC port?

If your LEAF can use DC, and you can still charge using CHAdeMO, you might be better off financially selling it to a buyer who plans to charge only at DC sites.

On-board charger failure, however uncommon is seems to be on LEAFs, is another reason besides those listed below, why I hope we will do away with them in the near future.




Take my on-board charger...PLEASE!

...Having the charger in-car is really not a convenience, it imposes multiple limitations. on BEVs.

Where kW rates are available at the charge site at higher rates than the on-board charger, the slower onboard charger is only a bottleneck preventing faster charging. It often prevents the desirable kW rate for anyBEV/BEVx/PHEV at any charge site, which is either the maximum the grid infrastructure at that location supports, and (far less frequently) the maximum the battery will accept (~48 kW for A ~24 kW pack like the LEAF's) both subject to kW cost/rate considerations.

An on-board charger can not be used to charge other BEVs/BEVxs/PHEVs (yours, or other drivers') while you are not using it, making its use extremely costly and inefficient, by requiring us to collectively pay for many more chargers than are necessary to service all BEVs public charging requirements.

An on-board charger adds large additional costs, weight an complexity to BEVs/BEVxs/PHEVs, and almost all of them probably will have to be thrown away, after the rest of each BEV/BEVx/PHEV reaches the end of its useful life.

An on-board charger will never allow vehicle-to-grid or vehicle-to-home kW transfer, which a two-way DC device will be able to, which can add additional value to the significant investment (the bigger the pack, the greater the benefit) every BEV/BEVx/PHEV owner has made in their battery pack, and in the case of BEVxs and PHEVs, add value to their on-board ICE as well.

The "waste" heat produced from the on-board charger is not recoverable, while, if the on-site charger is properly located, this heat can be recovered to meet the needs of the human passenger's activities, while they are charging.

As I mentioned before, before the transition to on-site chargers is complete, you may want to carry a portable charger with you, especially when driving in remote areas.

At some point in the future though, I expect that notion will probably seam about as qaint as carrying your own fuel pump and hose with you, just in case the gas station you are headed to doesn't have any fuel pumps on-site.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=19953
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
OBC covered for 8 years 100k miles.

BTW it's "whopping" not "wopping" :)

They told me it was not covered but I will ask again. "Whopping"... you are correct sir. Thanks.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
mrafferty said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
I would petition Nissan for a discount

Can you point me in the direction to do such a thing?

hmmm, nissan.com?
No. http://www.nissanusa.com/apps/contactus, probably Consumer Affairs.
LTLFTcomposite said:
OBC covered for 8 years 100k miles.
No, it's covered for 5 years/60K miles.

From the '12 warranty booklet:
ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) SYSTEM COVERAGE
The EV System coverage period is 60 months or
60,000 miles, whichever come first.
This warranty covers any repairs needed to correct
defects in materials or workmanship.
EV System Coverage applies to components
listed below under the heading EV System, supplied
by Nissan, subject to the exclusions listed
under the heading WHAT IS NOT COVERED.
EV SYSTEM
Motor, Inverter unit, VCM, Reduction gear,
DC/DC converter, Onboard charger, Onboard
charger connector, and Trickle charge cable.
OP, out of curiosity, if you use a level 2 charging stations regularly, what make and model are they?
 
OP, out of curiosity, if you use a level 2 charging stations regularly, what make and model are they?

I think that Cwerdna is wondering if you regularly charge at one or more GE Wattstations. There is a known issue with this model charging station and the Leaf, where a power outage while the two are connected can kill the Leaf's charger.
 
LeftieBiker said:
OP, out of curiosity, if you use a level 2 charging stations regularly, what make and model are they?

I think that Cwerdna is wondering if you regularly charge at one or more GE Wattstations. There is a known issue with this model charging station and the Leaf, where a power outage while the two are connected can kill the Leaf's charger.
Yes. And, it seems like it might be related to the use of the power button on the home GE Wattstations.

If the stock L1 EVSE (aka trickle charger cable) that came w/the car still charges (albeit slowly), then it's likely the diode in the OBC was blown.
 
In which case, you COULD wire in a diode externally...

cwerdna said:
[If the stock L1 EVSE (aka trickle charger cable) that came w/the car still charges (albeit slowly), then it's likely the diode in the OBC was blown.
 
cwerdna said:
LeftieBiker said:
OP, out of curiosity, if you use a level 2 charging stations regularly, what make and model are they?

I think that Cwerdna is wondering if you regularly charge at one or more GE Wattstations. There is a known issue with this model charging station and the Leaf, where a power outage while the two are connected can kill the Leaf's charger.
Yes. And, it seems like it might be related to the use of the power button on the home GE Wattstations.

If the stock L1 EVSE (aka trickle charger cable) that came w/the car still charges (albeit slowly), then it's likely the diode in the OBC was blown.

We have a Siemens VersiCharge and have been using it for well over 2 years now.
 
Electric Vehicle (EV) System Coverage
The Electric Vehicle (EV) System includes, but is not limited to, the following items: Motor, Inverter unit, VCM, Reduction gear, DC/DC converter, Onboard charger, Onboard charger connector, and Trickle charge cable.
Maybe it varies by year

http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/charging-range/battery/
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
Electric Vehicle (EV) System Coverage
The Electric Vehicle (EV) System includes, but is not limited to, the following items: Motor, Inverter unit, VCM, Reduction gear, DC/DC converter, Onboard charger, Onboard charger connector, and Trickle charge cable.
Maybe it varies by year

http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/charging-range/battery/
From the '17 Leaf warranty booklet at https://owners.nissanusa.com/content/techpub/ManualsAndGuides/LEAF/2017/2017-LEAF-warranty-booklet.pdf, accessible via https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/navigation/manualsGuide, OBC is still only covered for 60 months or 60K miles, whichever comes first.

See page 11 of the PDF or 7 of the booklet.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
OK, so what's the deal with what that web page says? Sounds pretty clear that it is covered.
http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/charging-range/battery/ also matches what I said.

"60-month/60,000-mile (whichever occurs earlier) powertrain and electric vehicle system coverage"

and later
"Electric Vehicle (EV) System Coverage

The Electric Vehicle (EV) System includes, but is not limited to, the following items: Motor, Inverter unit, VCM, Reduction gear, DC/DC converter, Onboard charger, Onboard charger connector, and Trickle charge cable."

The 8 years/100K miles stuff on the right is referring to the battery defects warranty as well as 30 kWh battery capacity warranty.
 
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